Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Beckham shaves with Occam's Razor

Good thing the World Cup is in Germany, where the "beautiful game" gets more respect. Despite a pretty strong public relations offensive (pun intended), people just aren't paying much attention to the World Cup here in the United States. A recent poll I heard about indicated that only 6% of Americans are paying close attention to the tournament, with most of those being expatriates of countries like England, Ghana, etc.

I have been watching soccer acolytes push this sport for over 30 years now. I remember when Pele, Giorgio Chinaglia, Franz Beckenbauer and assorted others were brought to the U.S. with great fanfare and placed among the teams of the North American Soccer League, which eventually withered into oblivion. I've seen Mia Hamm offered as the equivalent of Michael Jordan. I've seen millions of kids play soccer on fields across this great land. But still, no market for the sport. Why is that? Can I offer a three word explanation?

Baseball* is better.

I'm fond of Occam's Razor, which holds that the simplest explanation is usually the best explanation. I say that even though it's likely that William of Occam would be rooting for Manchester United or Real Madrid or some such were he here today.

*Football and basketball, too.

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